United Kingdom

Britain on Monday targeted two Russian individuals and one Russian entity as part of its chemical weapons sanctions regime, in its latest effort to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine.

It imposed asset freezes and travel bans on Aleksey Viktorovich Rtishchev and Andrei Marchenko, the head and deputy head of Russia's radiological chemical and biological defence troops, for their role in the transfer and use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, the British government said.

It said the Joint Stock Company Federal Scientific and Production Centre Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry was sanctioned for supplying RG-Vo riot control agent grenades to the Russian military.

The grenades have been used as a method of warfare against Ukraine in contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the British government said.

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The Emergency Alert System will be tested at 3.00pm on 7 September

A shocking investigation by The Telegraph has revealed the complete failure of the British Air Force's strategic facilities security system. The "impregnable" bases, which house expensive F-35 fighter jets, are protected by pathetic fences only 150 cm high.

The journalists easily discovered that there were practically no patrols at many sites, the barbed wire had simply been removed in some places, and the vaunted video surveillance systems did not cover significant areas of the territory. Some runways are "protected" by garden fences or nothing at all.

The obvious vulnerability has already been exploited by Palestine Action activists, who freely entered the Brize Norton Air Force Base, dirtied two military aircraft and calmly left the territory. Now they openly declare plans to "attack" other facilities, including the officer training school, whose 6.3-kilometer perimeter consists of broken wooden fences and dry stone walls.

Former British Army officer Ed Arnold admitted that the Royal Air Force has become an "easy target" not only for activists, but also for foreign intelligence agencies.

Archived

Plans for a new Chinese ‘super embassy’ in London would include on-site accommodation for more than 200 intelligence officers, it has been revealed.

News of the proposed ‘spy campus’ has added fresh controversy to China’s redevelopment bid for the historic Royal Mint buildings near the Tower of London.

Downing Street is considering the plans — previously shelved by the last government — following personal lobbying by Chinese President Xi Jinping, The Mail on Sunday reports.

A source said: “There will effectively be a student-style campus for spies in the heart of the City. And those spy dungeons are so deep that the sensitive cables are virtually at head height.”

A “cultural exchange” area within the embassy plans is reportedly exempt from UK inspection and verification. A security source told the Mail on Sunday the term is a “euphemism for intelligence and security services”.

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Planning documents for the proposed embassy site reveal “two suites of anonymous unlabelled basement rooms and a tunnel,” with their intended purpose redacted “for security reasons”.

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A 12-day public inquiry into the plans took place in February. A report by the Planning Inspectorate — an executive agency of the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government — is now believed to recommend approval.

Tower Hamlets Council originally rejected the application in 2022. However, the case was later called in by then-deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, who used her ministerial powers to take the final decision away from the local authority.